Davis received the 2018Pulitzer Prize for History for his book The Gulf: The Making of an American Sea.[2] He also wrote An Everglades Providence: Marjory Stoneman Douglas and the American Environmental Century, a dual biography of Marjory Stoneman Douglas and the Florida Everglades; and Race Against Time: Culture and Separation in Natchez since 1930. With Raymond Arsenault, he edited Paradise Lost?: The Environmental History of Florida, a collection of essays on the history of the human relationship with Florida nature.
Race Against Time: Culture and Separation in Natchez Since 1930 won the Charles S. Sydnor Prize for the best book in southern history published in 2001.[1]An Everglades Providence (2009), received the Florida Book Award gold medal in the nonfiction category.[3] In addition to winning a Pulitzer Prize, The Gulf: The Making of an American Sea[4] was awarded the 2017 Kirkus Prize in nonfiction and was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. The book covers the history of Gulf of Mexico from geological formation to the present (2016).
His other works include The Wide Brim: Early Poems and Ponderings of Marjory Stoneman Douglas (2002); Making Waves: Female Activists in Twentieth-Century Florida (2003), edited by Kari Frederickson and Davis; and The Civil Rights Movement (2000).
An Everglades Providence: Marjory Stoneman Douglas and the American Environmental Century Athens : Univ Of Georgia Press, 2011. ISBN9780820337791, OCLC696916151
Race Against Time: Culture and Separation in Natchez since 1930. Baton Rouge, La. : Louisiana State University Press, 2001. ISBN9780807130278, OCLC56654733
The Wide Brim: Early Poems and Ponderings of Marjory Stoneman Douglas (Florida History and Culture) April 15, 2002;
Making Waves: Female Activists in Twentieth-Century Florida Gainesville : University Press of Florida, 2003. ISBN9780813027678, OCLC50348066
